Lawyer Monthly - April 2023

Commonwealth level. It is regulated on a state-by-state basis. Disability is regulated under both state and Commonwealth law. The National Disability Insurance Act (Cth) 2013 and its Standards are key pieces of legislation. In your extensive experience in the field of aged care, what are the greatest issues that the practice faces today? The greatest issues currently impacting aged care legal practice in Australia are the speed, volume and far-reaching implications of regulatory change, largely arising as a response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety which tabled its final report in September 2021. This report, ‘Care Dignity and Respect’, followed two years of well-publicised hearings, public consultation, reports and research which highlighted deficiencies across the aged care sector and made numerous recommendations for reform. The Australian government is committed to introducing as many of these reforms as possible, as swiftly as possible. Aged care regulatory reform also coincides with regulatory reform occurring across a number of other domains also highly relevant to aged care service provision. These include the most significant workforce reforms in the last 10 years, a dramatic increase in penalties for serious privacy breaches with further privacy/cyber reforms to come, dramatically increased penalties under the unfair contracts regime, progressive implementation of the voluntary assisted dying regimes, persistent agitation for change in human rights laws and promises of change in environmental stewardship requirements to come. THOUGHT LEADER 73 The greatest issues currently impacting aged care legal practice in Australia are the speed, volume and far-reaching implications of regulatory change.

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